Live With Passion

 

Regular readers may recognise this post title, it’s a phrase I use a lot at the end of some blog posts, and also a phrase I use whilst teaching. Regular readers may also recognise John and Gilly who have featured on this blog a couple of times before over the last few winters. So what’s the link between ‘Live with passion’ and John and Gilly?

Everything. Everything they do is done with passion. Sport, cooking, family life, oh and skiing amongst many other things. So I know that when they book me for lessons, we are in for a fantastic time. Over the last couple of winters their skills have developed to the point where we can venture off-piste, not only within easy reach of pistes but also much further afield.

This is all well and good, but if snow and weather conditions, as well as avalanche risks aren’t in your favour then off-piste skiing can become challenging.

Fortunately we had some precipitation just after we started skiing together. To be honest, some of the weather was pretty filthy for a while, however we eventually ended up with a wonderful present from Mother Nature of a decent blanket of fresh snow.

I could bore you with all of the details into where we skied, but I suspect it would all sound very foreign to you. All I’ll say is that we skied the full width of the fabulous 3 Valleys, from Val Thorens, Méribel through to and beyond the other side of Courchevel.

In between skiing fantastic powder snow we worked on our core technical skills, spoke about tactical options, and shared our psychological experiences at various moments. Our final day together was an absolute beauty of a day. An off-piste route over in the Vallée des Avals. I’ll be blogging about this day over on www.mh2ski.co.uk in a couple of weeks time, so without spoiling that post I’ll just include a few images now.

Don’t forget if you are a Facebook or Twitter fan you can stay more up to date with musings here in Méribel via the www.mh2ski.co.uk website. Feel free to leave any comments. Happy New Year. Oh, and ‘Live With Passion’.

Martin

Speed Queens

Last weekend Courchevel was the latest resort to host the FIS World Cup Ladies tour. This year it was the turn of the Giant Slalom specialists to battle it out on the ‘Stade’ race piste at Courchevel 1747 (otherwise known as 1850 to some people).

I chose to take that day off from teaching, especially because I was about to start a straight eight day stint of work, and that’s before the Christmas period kicks in properly.

Sadly the weather was a little overcast, however that didn’t dampen the spirits (quoted from the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations last summer) of the athletes or the supporters. I took my mate Canon along to take some snapshots from various viewpoints.

It was a really well attended race, with clearly many different fan club supporters, various local race clubs, plenty of holidaymakers and ski instructors as well. It was a fantastic experience being able to watch up close and personal, and appreciate just how exceptional these skiers are.

Canon and I got carried away a little bit so here are just a few more images taken during the second run of the race.

The Christmas period here in Méribel is about to start. The numbers of people arriving in resort are increasing every day. The snow conditions remain very good, with weather bouncing around all over the place. Don’t forget you can stay up to date over on www.mh2ski.co.uk especially if you want to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Live with passion everyone.

Martin

Snowed Under

If you are a winter sports fan and have been following the start of this winter then I hope you are all very excited, because we have had a fantastic start to the season with excellent snow conditions. I heard last week that Bourg Saint Maurice; a town in the valley below Val d’Isere and Tignes, has had the most snowfall in December this year than at any point in the last fifty years. Moutiers is Méribel’s equivalent of Bourg, and it’s buried under snow as well. This is great for us skiers, but a pain in the neck for normal life.

The last two weeks I’ve been teaching over in Tignes in the great L’Espace Killy area. I drove over there, and parked outside the chalet I was staying in, thinking nothing could possibly go wrong with being parked there. How stupid. The above photo shows how much snow fell in just one 36 hour period. It took me and a few others quite a while to dig it out before parking in an underground garage.

The snow conditions improved after each weather front swept through. Whilst we were in the middle of some of the storms it was a pretty tough existence. Strong winds accompanied the snowfalls, and some days we only had two or three chairlifts that were able stay open, it became a war of attrition.

This also meant that the avalanche risk stayed sky high for a while. However once the weather calmed down we were treated to some magnificent skiing, both on and off piste. I was working for Inspire to Ski again, see www.inspiretoski.com. During the two weeks I had a mixture of ‘All Mountain Performance’ groups, a private booking and an ‘Off-Piste Performance’ group.

I was working with other British instructors and really enjoyed working together as a team. Each morning, lunchtime and evening we discussed each other’s plans and collectively decided on the best areas to ski depending on the ski lift status.

When skiing off-piste the snow was so deep we sometimes couldn’t move. The normal solution to this is to find steeper slopes where gravity helps pull the skier through the deep powder. But because of the high avalanche risk our choices using steep slopes were limited.

It was a delicate balance of finding safe but also fun slopes to ski on. However later in the second week more terrain became available to us, especially over in Val d’Isere, and we made the most of it. One member of the group decided on checking out the local wildlife buried down in the snow, or so I was told!

It was a fantastic start to my teaching this winter, and I can’t wait to continue this week. It would take me ages to list all the names I skied with over the last two weeks, so I’ll just do a collective ‘thank you’ to you all.

I’m safely back in Méribel this weekend, and start work again tomorrow with eight straight days of work before Christmas Day. If you are coming out skiing over the holiday period I hope you have a fantastic trip. I can guarantee you one thing, you won’t be short of snow. Especially because we’ve got even more forecast over the next three days. Live with passion.

Martin

Website Newsflash

Hi everyone from the snowy French Alps. Since my last post we’ve been on the receiving end of some very hefty storms which have resulted some decent snowfalls. I’ll post about this shortly, whilst I was teaching over in Tignes. However I can finally make an exciting announcement. My main ski instructing website has gone through a fantastic revamp. Please go across to www.mh2ski.co.uk . I’m really chuffed with how it looks, but please do give me some feedback, it’s always great to hear from people. I’ll post again shortly about our recent snow conditions. Have a great weekend everybody.

Martin

Interview with Slippers Jackson

Some of my regular readers will have heard of my friend, Slippers Jackson. He is also a ski instructor, based over in Morzine and Les Gets during the main part of the winter. We met many years ago when we were both mountain bike guides in Morzine, and have shared many experiences together on skis. One of the new features I’m going to introduce on this blog over the winter, are interviews with people I know within the ski industry. So I thought I’d start with Slippers who has been staying with me for a couple of nights before we head over to Tignes and work together.

 

Martin: Thanks for being my first guest on the blog, Slippers. Straight in with the first question. How old were you when you first skied, and where did you go?

Slippers: I was thirteen years old and my first trip was a school holiday, we went to Bardonnecchia in Italy. It was an awesome trip, but I hurt my knee mid way through the week and had to take a day off.

Martin: How did you hurt your knee?

Slippers: I was skiing too fast and had a big fall (big grin). However I remember a couple of other things as well. We went to a disco, and I remember pushing big chairs around the dance floor to the music of Gary Numan’s record ‘Cars’. But the most poignant thing which happened that week was coming across a newspaper headline. Someone in the group had bought a paper that said ‘Britain At War’, it was when Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

Martin: Did you have any other school skiing holidays?

Slippers: Yes, I went to Auffach in Austria, Courchevel here in France and Badgasthein in Austria again. They were brilliant trips.

Martin: Do you remember any of your ski instructors?

Slippers: No I don’t, not really! I remember how much fun you could have skiing, I also remember sneaking into a casino once as well. Another story I will never forget is this; Although our school taught both boys and girls, the classes were same sex, and we were pretty much kept apart. On the holiday to Badgasthein, the girls’ rooms were on the floor above the boys. One night I went into one of the girl’s room for a chat, but all of a sudden there was a knock on the door, it was a teacher checking on the girls. I was quickly rushed outside onto the balcony to hide, it was seriously cold. The teacher stayed in the room for ages and ages, it was probably the coldest I’ve ever felt in my life including whilst skiing!

Editors note here, I’ve skipped quite a few questions and answers and fast forwarded through the interview. These other Q and As will be published on another blog at a later date. Back to the interview.

Martin: Your wife Lisa is also a ski instructor, can you remember how you first met her, was it in a ski resort?

Slippers: Yes I do remember and will never forget how we met. I had to go over to Sestriere in Italy to attend a European Speed Test (that’s one of the hardest top ski instructors exams, a giant slalom race). Fortunately I overheard her talk to someone, so I knew she was British, and I had to ask to borrow some money from her.

Martin: More wine?

Slippers: Don’t mind if I do, chin chin (wink).

Martin: That’s an unusual chat up line, Slippers.

Slippers: That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t have any money to buy the lift pass. No lift pass, no attempt at the speed test. This was the time when you and I were working over in Courchevel together for another ski school. After that Italian trip I occasionally bumped into her in Courchevel, where she was also teaching. It wasn’t until the end of the following season that we properly spoke to each other.

Martin: Was it on snow?

Slippers: No, it was the last day of the winter season, and we were at the closing night of the ‘Signal’ bar in Courchevel 1650.

Martin: Oh ok, I won’t ask anymore about that. Oh hang on, was this the winter just before Harriet and I got married? I remember hearing about you and Lisa becoming an item, and then you came together as guests at our wedding.

Slippers: Bang on (Massive cheeky grin).

Martin: Final question, what has been your most embarrassing thing that has happened to you on skis?

Slippers: I’m sure there are loads, let me think. Many years ago, before becoming a ski instructor, I worked as a ski guide for a large tour operator. There was one day when I was absolutely knackered because of various things, and I was ski guiding two girls. At the top of a lift, late in the afternoon, I explained where our next lift to aim for. I skied off and jumped on a lift, and somehow promptly fell asleep. I woke up with a jolt and had a massive panic attack because I couldn’t see the girls behind me, and the chair was empty in front of me. Fortunately I just spotted them miles away on another lift, but mine was one of those really long, slow chairs. Cut a long story short, I had bumbled onto the wrong lift and lost my guests; and so after a frantic chase we just about all got back to the hotel safely, albeit much later than planned.

Martin: That’s great, thanks for the interview Slippers. More wine?

Slippers: Thanks, don’t mind if do, but take it easy Martin I don’t want to hear you snoring again tonight.

Martin

Newsflash

It’s snowing in Méribel, hooray. It started just after 3pm, and fingers crossed will continue for a while. The other good news is that the temperatures are dropping. I’m pretty sure it will be possible to switch on the snow cannons soon, especially towards the end of the week when it’s due to get much colder.

I was hoping to tell you about the launch of the new mh2ski website, but sadly the finishing tweaks are taking a little longer than anticipated, it will be worth it though. I’ll keep you posted. During the last week I’ve been really busy with social media. I’ve posted loads of really cool skiing videos on the mh2ski facebook page, see http://www.facebook.com/pages/mh2-Ski/251350448310422. There are plenty of videos clips on there for you, for example a short one about the new mountain restaurant for this winter La Folie Douce, there’s a funny video from the alpine ski stars from Head including Bode Miller and others, there’s an amazing short film all about Méribel. I think you get the gist, do go and have a look, and please feel free to ‘like’ us as well. Likewise I’ve been tweeting loads as well, feel free to follow @mh2ski.

Tomorrow I’ll be going across to Tignes with my mate Slippers. It will be our first time back on skis for this winter. So myself, Slippers and Canon will be heading across together, I’ll do my best to post something in a few days time.

Martin

Méribel Building Site

I arrived back in Méribel only yesterday evening and to say I’m excited would be an understatement. Quite often I’d post about where I stayed overnight half way down through France, before reaching the Alps. I won’t this time, however for the record it was Nuits St. Georges again in Burgundy. The coffee in France is as strong as ever. The wine is very fine. And the smell of diesel all over your hands when refilling your car is also as you would expect, rather repulsive! It’s great being back in France !?! So what have I been up to since reaching Méribel 24 hours ago? Seeing what has changed since I left in the spring.

This afternoon I’d thought I’d get some fresh air, and go for a stroll, a great way of flushing 850 miles of driving out from the system. A quick sprint down to Chaudanne to see how the new Saulire Express bubble is looking. Hhmmm, still a bit of a building site.

The top of the old bubble station has been sliced off, with the replacement looking rather swish. Granted, it’s far from being finished, but looks good all the same. It appears that the access ramp will start from the side of the information hut. After seeing that, I decided to walk up various pistes to see how it looked further up. The bubbles were moving on the cables, which was a good sign. After a couple of hours of huffing and puffing I made it up to the mid station.

Another reason for going this far up was because I was rather intrigued to see what was going on at the site of the tranquil old Choucas mountain restaurant. Yep, all confirmed. It had disappeared into thin mountain air, and replaced by another massive building site. For those who know Méribel, the big news for this winter was for a ‘Folie Douce’ to reach our valley.

If you are not aware of the phenomenon of a ‘Folie Douce’, see  http://www.lafoliedouce.com/meribel/fr  . Or for a slightly more in your face loud experience,  there is a youtube clip to have a look at http://youtu.be/k_RIxqDKTrA. Controversial and will no doubt be popular. However, still a building site at the moment.

Earlier this morning I needed to go back to Mottaret, a long story and happy to talk about it in person over a Mutzig beer. But hey, guess what, it’s a huge building site up there as well. The final landscaping of the new World Cup bumps (moguls) pitch is being finished off. It’s positioned just to the side of the Combes chairlift, to help you visualise.

Another building site up there is right next to the Bumps stade, the new Plattieres bubble.This next photo shows the Combes chairlift on the right, with the Bumps stade in the middle, and the bottom station of the Plattieres bubble on the left.

I was speaking to a local resident yesterday down in the supermarket, who said that there is no mid station now close to the Sitelle. I haven’t yet been up there so can’t confirm that, however that would explain the super fast uplift for this new bubble.

Apologies if you are new to Méribel and this blog, and you haven’t got an utter clue what this post is about. In summary, the valley of Méribel keeps improving with huge and expensive upgrades each year. As the youtube Folie Douce video clip announces, ‘ARE YOU READY?’

Martin 

Bring. It. On.

It’s amazing to think that this time next week I’ll be back on French soil again and on my way to starting European ski season number fifteen. For a start how did it suddenly become season number fifteen? In fact how has the start of winter fifteen suddenly whizzed up so fast since the end of last season? Well it just has, so let’s just leave it at that !?! I could rattle on again about moving house, building up my wedding photography business and other time consuming activities. But basically, the days are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, and the high mountain peaks are getting snowed on. You can’t hold back the seasons. 

I hope you’ve all had a fabulous summer and autumn, just like Harriet and I have. It will be great fun catching up on all of your stories over the past few months with you in person, whether it’s on a chairlift, having a hot chocolate in a mountain restaurant, or even a cheeky drink in a Méribel bar. Normally at this stage of the autumn I’ve posted a few articles in the build up to the next winter. Apologies for not this year, so how about I display a bumper number of my favourite photos that Canon and I took from last winter to get you in the mood. What an amazing winter it was last year, and let us look forward to the next few months of fun in the mountains.

Live with passion everyone.

Martin

P.S. I know I’ve promised some exciting news recently, I haven’t forgotten and promise to tell you as soon as I get the official nod. I’ll keep you posted.